What's 'Weird Al' Yankovic Up To? Vol. I

I feel like I would be remiss if I didn't at least occasionally update you on the activities of Mr. “Weird Al” Yankovic, who is a famous musician I have interviewed. Twice.

Pete Chianca

I feel like I would be remiss if I didn’t at least occasionally update you on the activities of Mr. “Weird Al” Yankovic, who is a famous musician I have interviewed. Twice. (And seen in concert three times, which was not quite enough, but anyway.)

You probably won't be surprised to hear that he’s as busy as ever -- he’s apparently almost done recording his latest album, which Patton Oswalt says is “beautiful.” (No word on what songs he’ll be parodying, but if there’s not a “Royals” parody called “Boils,” I’d consider that a missed opportunity.) But in the meantime, he’s also managed to fit in the following activities:

1) He covered “Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)” for artist Mark Ryden’s “The Gay 90s” exhibit in Los Angeles, among several artists who did the same (including Katy Perry and Metallica's Kirk Hammett, who are two people you don’t find in the same sentence that often). Al’s version and Ryden-created video is weird, although not quite as weird as Nick Cave’s, with its singing embryo thingies.

2) He was one of several artists who turned up in College Humor’s “Star Wars Cantina Auditions.” Varying degrees of funniness ensue (excepting Al, who is of course spot on), but Ben Folds gets a big thumbs up as a mournful Ewok murderer.

3) His latest cartoon for Dogtoons showed up, this one on “The Mystery of Meat.”

4) He won the A.C.E. Award (Amateur Cartoonist Extraordinaire) from the National Cartoonists Society.

5) This was back in February, but on the off chance that you missed it, he did a voice on “My Little Pony.” (His character’s name was Cheese Sandwich, because what else would it be?)

Stay tuned for further "Weird Al" Yankovic updates as they become available.